Internet outages the past few days have put the spotlight on the balance between technology and traditional lessons inside the classroom.

With technology creating active learners, encouraging individual growth, and preparing students for the real world, Frisco ISD has pushed for the implementation of digital learning with a goal to create, promote, and sustain an innovative digital learning culture.

“I think it’s become very important because its sort of the way that most businesses operate now,” campus digital learning coach Clayton Pope said. “Technology has sort of taken over the way we do everyday things so I think education in the classroom should model that because it’s preparing kids to have success for the kinds of jobs they’ll do and the kinds of things they’ll do in college.”

But what happens when the network is down?

Is this leaving teachers asking ‘what now?’

“They’re aggravated, but you also have to take a step back and realize where we started from, where we learned from, board and paper,” technology support specialist Brittony Guillen said. “You always have to be flexible and have a back-up plan. We can’t always depend on technology even though we thrive on it and need it, at times it can be our worst enemy.”

Walk in almost any classroom on campus on any given day and there’s a good chance digital devices are being used for lessons, tests, quizzes, and projects.

“It’s become a blessing and a curse,” pre-calculus teacher Amber Bennett said. “I think the theory behind it is great, to get beyond just your traditional pencil and paper. It gets kids moving and searching for other things than just what’s in black and white on you paper. But we are subject to does the network work or does it not, so it puts us in a bind sometimes.”

Moving forward, Pope hopes to see solutions that improve the strength of the district’s network.

“I think if you’re going to have technology in the classroom, you have to have the infrastructure to support that,” Pope said. “When technology blips do occur, whether it’s in school or at a business, it sort of shuts down efficiency in production. It slows things down, so hopefully they have come up with a solution and they can figure out how to prevent these kind of blips in the network from happening again.”

Senior Jahson Ferguson believes the ideal classroom has a balance which could help rectify an entire class period being wasted due to a lack of connection.

“I like having the one on one teacher interaction because I can learn the material better just because I’m not a computer person but I do like the ability to have outside sources and have a bunch of different options accessible to me,” Ferguson said. “You always have to make sure that the teaching component takes precedence over the technological component otherwise you kind of get lost in it and then it defeats the sole purpose.